Key Laboratory of Modern Chinese Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210009, China.
Curr Top Med Chem. 2010;10(4):434-57. doi: 10.2174/156802610790980620.
Diabetes mellitus (DM), the third killer of the mankind health along with cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, is one of the most challenging diseases facing health care professionals today. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that a DM epidemic is underway. Primary DM and its complications are costly to manage, not only for affected individuals, but also for healthcare systems around the world. Screening of anti-diabetic agents has been extensively investigated in the past decades. Natural products (NPs) have served as a major source of drugs for centuries, and about half of the pharmaceuticals in use today are derived from natural substances. Many natural products especially plants-derived medicines have been recommended for the treatment of DM. The present paper reviews NPs appeared in the literature with potential for DM and also identifies the research needs in this area. It mainly covers the time period from January 2004 to October 2008. The current review is divided into three major sections based on classification of the natural materials involved. The first part focuses on known and some new chemical entities isolated mainly from medicinal plants possessing anti-diabetic properties, including saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, anthraquinones, terpenes, coumarins, phenolics, polysaccharides, and some other compounds. The second part summarizes crude extract of medicinal plants which are commonly used in the traditional Chinese medical system and have been demonstrated experimental or/and clinical anti-diabetic effectiveness, mainly including Leguminosae, Cucurbitaceae, Araliaceae, Liliaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Solanaceae, Compositae, Campanulaceae, Cornaceae, Rhamnaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Ginkgoceae, Gramineae, Myrtaceae, Sterculiaceae, Annonaceae, Labiatae, Crassulaceae, and Miscellaneous. The third part lists some compound formulae consisting of extracts of several plants that have been reported as beneficial for the treatment of DM, major involving Xiaokeling tablet, Ba-Wei-Di-Huang-Wan and Formula 1.
糖尿病（DM）是继癌症、心血管疾病和脑血管疾病之后人类健康的第三大杀手，也是当今医疗保健专业人员面临的最具挑战性的疾病之一。世界卫生组织（WHO）已宣布糖尿病流行正在进行中。原发性糖尿病及其并发症的管理成本很高，不仅对患者个人，而且对全球医疗保健系统都是如此。过去几十年来，人们广泛研究了抗糖尿病药物的筛选。天然产物（NPs）作为药物的主要来源已有几个世纪的历史，目前使用的药物中有一半左右来自天然物质。许多天然产物，特别是植物源性药物，已被推荐用于治疗糖尿病。本文综述了文献中报道的具有潜在糖尿病治疗作用的 NPs，并确定了该领域的研究需求。主要涵盖了从 2004 年 1 月到 2008 年 10 月的时间段。本综述主要基于所涉及天然材料的分类，分为三个主要部分。第一部分主要关注从具有抗糖尿病特性的药用植物中分离得到的已知和一些新的化学实体，包括皂苷、黄酮类、生物碱、蒽醌类、萜类、香豆素类、酚类、多糖类和其他一些化合物。第二部分总结了常用于中医系统且已证明具有实验和/或临床抗糖尿病效果的药用植物粗提取物，主要包括豆科、葫芦科、五加科、百合科、藜科、茄科、菊科、桔梗科、桔梗科、山茱萸科、鼠李科、玄参科、大戟科、银杏科、禾本科、桃金娘科、杨柳科、唇形科、景天科和杂类。第三部分列出了一些由几种植物提取物组成的复方配方，这些配方已被报道对糖尿病的治疗有益，主要涉及消渴灵片、八味地黄丸和 1 号方。
